I just rode home over the viaduct and sections of the eastbound bikelane are closed. Giant jersey concrete barriers are in the way with signs saying the bikelane is closed and cyclists should merge with traffic.

I can’t, as someone who rides the viaduct twice a day, and takes my daughter downtown in our bike trailer, sit back and let this happen. This NOT a street to “merge with traffic” as traffic regular goes 60, 70, 80 kmh. I am NOT going to ride across the viaduct with my daughter in a trailer. It was unsafe before, now it is not possible. I will have problems merging with traffic just on my own, commuting home from work. It’s not a pleasant stretch to ride on.

I understand that the viaduct is being worked on to re-inforce the structure of it, but it’s not right that the bikelane is the only thing that gets closed. The only way across the Don Valley for thousands and thousands of east end residents is now not an option.

If the construction necessitates closing the bikelane, then fine… the construction company needs room to work… BUT an alternative has to be provided. Create a temporary bikelane in the curb car lane until construction is over. Use pylons, use more jersey barriers, just use something.

I don’t think what I’m asking for here is unreasonable. Merging into car traffic on the bridge is unreasonable.

I’m going on vacation tomorrow (and unfortunately can not enjoy it as much now), but this situation trumps everything else bike related for me right now. I will come back from vacation and work on making the viaduct safe for all cyclists at the expense of everything else I do. I can’t work on other things until this is done. It’s too important.

We can NOT let this slide, Alan. I get passionate about bike stuff, but this is consuming me.

sharkbait

This is absolutely bonkers. Why would anyone think this is remotely OK? I am going to email my councillor about this (as well as others). Totally crazy.

George

Was driving across the viaduct tonite and a cyclist in front of me was almost hit by the car in front of me when he was merging…I did a quick switch to the middle lane to avoid him if he got knocked over…it’s not just unsafe for bikers, if there was more cars on the bridge at the time it could have been messy for them as well…

I agree with everything written in this blog post. However, I see no difference between riding mixed in with car traffic vs riding mixed in with car traffic on the Dan. Personally, I take the lane instead of hugging the curb when there is no secure bike lane.

Toronto culture is to place the needs of cars ahead of those of bikes even though bikes are safer (cars produce danger pollution), healthier, and can put more people through a high density neighbourhood than cars can. That’s because we’re coming from a world without bike lanes, even a world without bikes. Everyone automatically expects the needs of cars to come first. When we need to narrow a road for construction, like on the Bloor Via, our first impulse is to cut the bike lane, not the car lane. This is the same reason why the city uses sharrows (darned infernal, useless things). On the north end of Bay St, there wasn’t enough room for a bike lane. The road just wasn’t wide enough. That was the automatic reaction. Put in a sharrow because a bike lane doesn’t fit. It doesn’t matter that cycling is a better option and will increase dramatically over the next five and ten years. How do we get out from under this burden of putting cars first? All of us need to learn more about car/bike safety and the different advantages and disadvantages of both modes of travel. If we really take the time to learn, we’ll not only reduce car access in preference to bike lanes instead of the other way around, we’ll install bike racks on the front of streetcars and make room at both ends of subway trains for bikes. We’ll use those jersey barriers instead of bollards and magically find people stop j-walking as a bonus. We’ll build a minimum grid with jerseyed bike lanes and then try plastic posts in other smaller streets and then mix cars and bikes in the same lanes on quieter, slower streets. It starts with getting rid of that gut reflex that cars need to come first. That comes when everyone understands car/bike safety and car and bike infrastructure far better… The rest is… easy. :)

Binary Logic

Biked west along the Danforth this evening. The eastbound lane now has barrels separating the bike lane. I felt envious because the only protection I had was the usual strip of paint !